Panipat’s dyeing sector in dire straits
Mukesh Tandon
Panipat, May 9
Sector-29 Part-2 — which is an industrial sector in the ‘Textile City’ — is crying for the attention of the authorities. With defunct streetlights, choked sewerage, blocked drains, no supply of potable water and broken roads, the sector is devoid of even basic amenities, rue industrialists.
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The main reason behind the poor condition of the sector is that it has been divided under three separate departments — HSVP, HSIIDC and the Municipal Corporation — Nitin Arora, President, Panipat Dyers’ Association
Due to the blocked sewerage at various places, the untreated effluents from the units flow on to the streets.
The industrialists said their problems multiplied after their sector was put under the control of three different departments. Earlier, it was under just the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP). The industrialists demanded that their sector be placed under one department so that they could raise their problems at a single platform.
Bheem Singh Rana, president of the Haryana Environmental Management Society and former president of the Panipat Dyers’ Association, Sector 29 Part-2, said the sector was especially developed for dyers in 2003 by the HSVP (then HUDA). Most dyeing units that were scattered in the city shifted to this sector, which had 779 plots, and they were given the facility of using the canal water.
However, it lacked basic amenities right from the beginning, he said.
Rana further said that Sector 29 Part-2 was the only sector where there was no supply of potable water. At present, as many as 750 industries are operational in the sector and thousands of people are working there.
“The problems were raised with the officials concerned at Panipat and Chandigarh several times, but these are yet to be resolved,” he said.
Vikas Chachra, executive member of Panipat Dyers’ Association, said, “We have been facing a major problem due to the choked sewerage system. The sewer lines have not been cleaned for a long time and untreated effluents are flowing on to main roads. This is a dyeing unit sector and the water which contains chemicals used in the dyeing process goes to the Common Effluent Treatment Plant. However, the main sewerage line is choked at several places, due to which this untreated water is overflowing on to various streets of the sector.”
“Besides, streetlights and tower lights have been lying defunct in the sector, which provides the maximum employment and generates the maximum revenue, for the last almost 15 years,” he added.
Nitin Arora, president, Panipat Dyers’ Association, said the main reason behind the poor condition of the sector is that it falls under the jurisdiction of three separate departments — HSVP, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and the Municipal Corporation.
Arora said sewerage and canal water matters are handled by the HSVP, HSIIDC deals with files related to plots, and and parks fall under the Municipal Corporation.
A delegation of industrialists met state minister Mahipal Dhanda on Wednesday and discussed their problems, besides the issue of growth and development. The minister reportedly assured them that their problems would be resolved at the earliest.